Helium Liquefier Development (HeLD)

NASA/Glenn Research Center (GRC) is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for the purchase of liquefiers/refrigerators to support space propulsion and cryogenic research and development activities.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) GRC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for Helium Liquefier Development (HeLD).  The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received.

Scope of each helium liquefier/refrigerator system: Helium compressor system (match to cold box requirements below), 4.5 K helium cold box, helium sub-cooler, associated control system (for compressor, cold and sub-cooler), multi-component gas analyzer, helium gas storage, helium adsorber/purifier (not integrated into cold box), and associated spares for critical components.

The submitted capability statement shall address whether the interested party offers a helium liquefier/refrigerator system which can address each of the following required capabilities:

• The helium liquefier/refrigerator system must:
  • Implement gas-bearing helium turbo-expanders that have a variable brake design and are located in the cold box at a temperature level below the liquid nitrogen assisted pre-cooling.  Variable brake must allow for an output power reduction to approximately 30% of the maximum, while maintaining high efficiency. No more than three turbines are to be used. 
  • Be capable of a maximum (liquefaction) capacity of no less than 6.8 g/s of make-up gas supplied at ambient temperatures up to 305.4 K and 1.05 bara, that is supplied to a load at a pressure of 3.5 bara and is sub-cooled to a temperature within 0.05 K of the saturation temperature corresponding to 1.25 bara.  For this operating point, the supply pressure to the cold box must not exceed 14 bara. 
  • Be capable of using liquid nitrogen to assist in the pre-cooling of the helium down to approximately 80 K. The liquid nitrogen assisted pre-cooling consumption must not exceed 3.7 g/s per 1 g/s of make-up (helium) gas.

• • Be capable of operating, at a reduced capacity, without liquid nitrogen assisted pre-cooling, but using the cold box turbines without requiring the throttling of the (turbine) inlet valves.
  • Not include an integrated purifier.
  • Be designed to allow use of an alternate compressor capable of a discharge pressure of 18.25 bara., utilizing its supplied exergy (at that pressure level).
• Mechanical design must conform to ASME B31.3 and ASME BPVC Section VIII, as applicable.
• All vacuum vessels must be designed to ASME BPVC Section VIII, Division 1 or 2 (but are not required to have a U-stamp). 
• The high pressure helium stream for cold box system must be rated no less than 18.25 bara per ASME B31.3. 
• Lower pressure helium and nitrogen streams for cold box system must be rated for no less than 10 bara per ASME B31.3. 
• Electrical design must conform to NFPA 70 and UL508A, as applicable.
• Helium turbo-expanders used must have a demonstrated mean time between maintenance (MTBM) of at least 20,000 hours and mean time failure (MTBF) of no less than 100,000 hours is required.

No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov.  Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

Vendors having the capabilities necessary to meet or exceed the stated requirements are invited to submit appropriate documentation, literature, brochures, and references.

All responses shall be submitted electronically via email to Ashlee Shaw at ashlee.b.shaw@nasa.gov no later than 5:00PM ET on January 10, 2025.  Please reference Helium Liquefier Development (HeLD) in any response. 

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited.  Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.  Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resultant solicitation for the requirement.